HELP! Win7 will not allow me to attach USB storage devices

[speedy1971]

I've posted this here before with no luck but I figured I'd try again.

Windows 7 is not allowing me to install USB Mass Storage Devices.

If I plug in my generic USB hard drive, I get the "Installing Device Drivers" balloon, and then it fails.

If I look at Device Manager it lists "Other Devices" and "USB2.0 Storage Device" with the yellow triangle icon next to it. If I manually choose drivers and have it look in \SYSTEM32, it says Windows found drivers for your device but an error occurred during installation. USB Mass Storage Device The System Cannot find the file specified.

Interesting notes: I have VMware Workstation installed. If VMs are running (XP or 7) THEY recognize the drive just fine. AND USB storage devices that I had ALREADY used on this system still work. It's only new ones that have this problem.

Dell support was completely useless. They first suggested reinstalling Windows... no thanks. Then they wanted to swap motherboards - not a hardware problem. So I appeal to the wizards here. Then *get this* they called me to say they would help me but since it is "advanced system troubleshooting" there is a fee - even though I am under warranty. To hell with them!

I did try deleting INFCACHE... no effect. Also played around with UpperFilters reg keys... no effect.

Help!

SS

 

[Petey7]

It sounds like you already got to decent answers. You could try getting drivers from the maker of the hard drive to try to fix your problem, since drivers aren't being installed automatically. If it shows up in VMs then it might be something that requires a repair install.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html?ltr=R

I don't see why you shouldn't go ahead and get the new mobo, provided its actually new. Motherboard, like all hardware, can develop problems over time. So, if its a new motherboard, not a refurb, I'd get it just to get a free $200 piece of hardware.

 

[speedy1971]

It's six months old, and the problem has nothing to do with the motherboard. If there was a problem, my VMs would not detect the drives properly. There is something wrong with Windows here.

There is no "driver" for hard drives except DISK.SYS. It is a generic USB 2.0 Mass Storage Class device that works fine with everything except this particular windows installation.

 

[Petey7]

Then you need to do the repair install. I agree a clean install sounds very undesirable. But a repair install will leave all programs and settings in place. In other words, you have nothing to lose by doing the repair install, but you may gain back the ability to use that external drive.

 

[speedy1971]

Hi Petey

Well the interesting part about that is that I managed to force Windows into "repair install" mode simply by trying one of the recommended steps here (in the BSOD subform) which was to delete the UpperFilters registry key for the Disk device class. Win7 did not like that much at all.

But the point is, this installation is already repair-installed once, so I don't see how running it a second time would help a whole lot. Not that you would have known that.

What galls me about this are two things:

- Microsoft support could probably fix this problem but since I bought my Windows 7 via an OEM (like 99% of the world), Microsoft won't provide support and refer me to Dell

- Dell wants to charge me to solve this problem even though I am under warranty. So the warranty only applies when it's a problem that an L1 tech can make go away by telling me to reboot? Come on I don't need to call India for someone to tell me I can reinstall Windows... clearly if I am contacting Dell I am looking for something OTHER THAN a scorched earth approach.

- And the L1 tech clearly stated the "only thing that can be done" is to reinstall Windows - so if that's true then why did they call me back offering to charge me for "advanced troubleshooting"?

I am no Apple fanboy but if I had a problem with any Apple Device, they call you (yes!) and you talk to someone in Cupertino and they solve the problem. Not always fast, but even when it goes not so well, you appreciate the effort. Dell does the absolute minimum. And it's not helpful

</rant>

(I guess that's *three* things isn't it?)

 

[karlsnooks]

It's six months old, and the problem has nothing to do with the motherboard. If there was a problem, my VMs would not detect the drives properly. There is something wrong with Windows here.

There is no "driver" for hard drives except DISK.SYS. It is a generic USB 2.0 Mass Storage Class device that works fine with everything except this particular windows installation.

Believe this old veteran of helping people with computer problems.

If a computer mfg suggests a motherboard exchange, then DO IT!

 

[Petey7]

Hi Petey

Well the interesting part about that is that I managed to force Windows into "repair install" mode simply by trying one of the recommended steps here (in the BSOD subform) which was to delete the UpperFilters registry key for the Disk device class. Win7 did not like that much at all.

But the point is, this installation is already repair-installed once, so I don't see how running it a second time would help a whole lot. Not that you would have known that.

What galls me about this are two things:

- Microsoft support could probably fix this problem but since I bought my Windows 7 via an OEM (like 99% of the world), Microsoft won't provide support and refer me to Dell

- Dell wants to charge me to solve this problem even though I am under warranty. So the warranty only applies when it's a problem that an L1 tech can make go away by telling me to reboot? Come on I don't need to call India for someone to tell me I can reinstall Windows... clearly if I am contacting Dell I am looking for something OTHER THAN a scorched earth approach.

- And the L1 tech clearly stated the "only thing that can be done" is to reinstall Windows - so if that's true then why did they call me back offering to charge me for "advanced troubleshooting"?

I am no Apple fanboy but if I had a problem with any Apple Device, they call you (yes!) and you talk to someone in Cupertino and they solve the problem. Not always fast, but even when it goes not so well, you appreciate the effort. Dell does the absolute minimum. And it's not helpful

</rant>

(I guess that's *three* things isn't it?)

Lets go over the many mistakes you made one by one.
1)Deleting important stuff from the registry. This does not make it do a repair install. It probably did a system restore. You need to insert a Windows 7 DVD while the computer is booted into Windows to do a repair install. I linked you to the tutorial that explains how to do it.

2)Not taking the time to find out what a repair install actually is, or realizing that when new problems come up you may need to do it again, not that you've done it even once.

3)Trying to get another company to void your warranty. MS told you go to Dell to help you.

4)Not taking advice from Dell, including getting the better warranty, which they always recommend on their website.

5)The L1 tech told you the only thing that can be done. They offered the advanced troubleshooting to make money. Welcome to a bad economy.

6)buying anything made by Apple.

7)Not doing something that everyone agrees you should do.

8) Thinking I am going to keep helping a guy that has no clue what he is doing AND not take my advice. When you want to apologize and start listening to me, I might try to help you again.

 

[speedy1971]

Well... not clear why you would get bent... but...

Specifically on the subject of repair installs, I know exactly what that is, and I am afraid you are wrong there. Try it for yourself. Delete the registry key I did (UpperFilters for the Disk device class in HKCR) and see what happens. You will also be in repair install. If you search in the BSOD forum you will find my original post where very nice, helpful people made those suggestions that I followed, that just didn't happen to work.

I'm very competent with disk imaging tools and I image very regularly so I can make such attempts with relative impunity. I've actually been working in the Windows software industry for 16 years, but this problem, which maybe is some corrupt INF file or something, is just above my head.

As far as the Apple stuff, that's your right to feel that way but I am a Windows partisan who also happens to own an iPad. BFD. I don't like my company MacBook at all, I only have it to demo my company's Mac client, but when I need Apple's help, they provide it and don't try to slap a bill on me cause it's "too challenging" for their techs.

So don't hold your breath for an apology. I have nothing to apologize for. I appreciate your making the suggestions, they just don't provide me any information I don't already have.

Through other posts and some google searching, I've already made progress - Windows will recognize the storage class now, it just is not able to mount the volume. Hopefully, someone will less of a chip on their shoulder will see this and have something helpful to add.

-SS

 

[karlsnooks]

speedy,

Let's forget all that has been said.

Let's wipe the slate clean.

Let me suggest that you state your problem, objectively, as if it was your first post.

From an old veteran whose first programming experience dates back to 1962.

 

[Petey7]

Dude, the fix your going on about is to fix CD and DVD drives. Look for yourself
The CD drive or the DVD drive does not work as expected on a computer that you upgraded to Windows Vista
How to delete "upper filters" and "lower filters" or something on Windows Vista or XP - Yahoo! Answers
How To Fix Your CD Drive Entry In Your Windows Registry
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-6142_102-0.html?threadID=231635
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-6142_102-0.html?threadID=231635

You obviously have no clue what a repair install is, and you would if you would just CLICK THE LINK in my earlier post. I understand what your problem is and want it fixed. So do the right damn thing.

EDIT: And I saw your other thread, where you refused to take advice from theog, one of the smartest people on here. We can't help those that won't help themselves, ever.

 

[speedy1971]

speedy,

Let's forget all that has been said.

Let's wipe the slate clean.

Let me suggest that you state your problem, objectively, as if it was your first post.

From an old veteran whose first programming experience dates back to 1962.

Hey man, thanks. You got me by a few years I gave up the compiler the day Quarterdeck offered me a job in QA. And they are long gone!

Objectively speaking... Windows 7 seems to be having trouble with USB Mass Storage Class drivers. Specifically, "new" USB devices e.g. memory keys, USB hard drives that have never been plugged into my PC before refuse to install. You get the "Installing Drivers" balloon and then it errors out and you get the "sad" sound and it says "No drivers found". Now these are generic devices all using DISK.SYS and PARTMGR.SYS so there really is no "special" driver for these.

Mass storage devices I have been using all along are fine, as are non-storage USB devices. But it would be nice to plug in other things and have them work as well.

So I took several steps including
- deleting the INFCACHE
- messing around with the registry keys that led me to...
- do a repair install
- forcing the drivers myself, which gets me as far as Windows admitting "yes this is a disk, but the driver will not load due to an error." The error code is 10, which is "file not found".

I can add that VMware Workstation 7.1 is on here, and the VMware USB virtual device handler is quite annoying... that being said, three different VMs all running as guests on this host (one W2K8, one Win 7 with BitLocker, and one XP MCE) ALL read the disk fine, even as the host OS cannot. If I disconnect the USB device from the VMware guest (which forces it to connect to host), I get the sad sound again/

I've entertained the notion that it's VMware that is screwing things up... but I can't really lose that, it's crucial to my work. I would like to avoid either nukeing Windows or repair-installing again, because the drivers I'd need to reload are plenty and fickle. What I'd like to do ideally is understand the problem well, so it doesn't repeat (that's my old QA training )

Everyone in BSOD has been very helpful in the past and present including them figuring out that my old Logitech Webcam was crashing the kernel (that was a doozy) so I am (still) optimistic that someone will have a stroke of genius.

I like this forum. although folks like Dell necessitate it, and it shouldn't be that way.

Thanks again
SS

 

[strollin]

I know in VirtualBox once the VM has control of the USB device the host system can't access it any longer. Are you sure it's not that way with VMWare? Try shutting down your VMs and see if the host can then access your USB drive.

 

[speedy1971]

I know in VirtualBox once the VM has control of the USB device the host system can't access it any longer. Are you sure it's not that way with VMWare? Try shutting down your VMs and see if the host can then access your USB drive.

VMware is essentially the same in that regard, yes. A USB device can connect to only one OS at a time, either the host or one of the guests.

I thought about that too but I get the same effect if VMware is totally shut down. So while VMware isn't making things any easier, I don't think it's doing the harm. Not sure about VBox but for VMware you can easily "Disconnect" any USB device from a VM and it will be passed back to the host... and in my case it will simply fail the driver install once again.

That's what leads me back to it being something in the \WINDOWS\INF directory because at the hardware level, the device is working. Even if I look in the BIOS, that drive will show up just fine as a USB storage device (I could even boot it if I wanted to) but as far as Windows 7 is concerned, it's still a "USB2.0 Storage Device" with a yellow triangle next to it in Device Manager, Error Code 10.

It appears as a root device, which tells me Windows does not know it's proper CLSID.

That about sums up where I am at.

Good suggestion though, I did monkey around with that quite a bit, as it is a logical place to look.

SS

 

[karlsnooks]

Speedy,

I've never used VMWare. I do fee that there is some interaction between your VMWare installation and Win 7.

Due to my lack of knowledge and experience with WMWare, I'm going to bow out other than suggest:
EVENTVWR.MSC

This program will overwhelm you with quantity of info collected.

Locating the desired info is not easy.

 

[speedy1971]

Speedy,

I've never used VMWare. I do fee that there is some interaction between your VMWare installation and Win 7.

Due to my lack of knowledge and experience with WMWare, I'm going to bow out other than suggest:
EVENTVWR.MSC

This program will overwhelm you with quantity of info collected.

Locating the desired info is not easy.

Yeah... sadly applications these days tend to use Event Viewer as a dumping ground for all kinds of irrelevancies. And Windows gets REAL unhappy if the System log happens to fill up...

I may try vmware uninstall/reinstall just cause that's relatively easy... it's stuff like Adobe CS5 that are a PITA to deal with (which is why I don't want to nuke Windows - once you get CS5 working, messing with it is just asking for agita)

 

[speedy1971]

Karl,

Update for ya. FIXED. I did a compare of my \WINDOWS\INF directory with one from a backup, and there were missing files.

Soooo... I pulled the files out of the backup and just overwrote the entire INF directory. PROBLEM SOLVED.

Or... you could spend a couple hours reinstalling Windows

Seriously, thanks for the help. At the very least we can make a mental note if anyone sees this in the future: it isn't VMware's fault.

SS

 

[karlsnooks]

Speedy,
Many thanks for getting back with the result and solution and I'm glad to hear that the problem was not VMWARE.

 

[chev65]

Not to start any more trouble here but it seems to me that doing a proper repair installation per petey's advice would have fixed any type of INF problems you were having.

 

[speedy1971]

Not to start any more trouble here but it seems to me that doing a proper repair installation per petey's advice would have fixed any type of INF problems you were having.

And taken up hours of time unnecessarily (almost four hours to do a full DriveImage backup and do a reinstall last time I had to do that). I'm not in a hurry to take my system down for that long.

Anyone with opposable thumbs can reinstall Windows. I know it would work. But that's neither fun nor informative.

-SS

 

[Dave76]

Glad you got it working.

If you have image backups, did you try restoring one of them?

Actually a Repair Install isn't like a clean install, you will not have to re-install any programs, drivers or lose any personal data. It will not be lost or affected.

Information:
This will show you how to do a repair upgrade install to fix your currently installed Windows 7 and preserve your user accounts, data, programs, and system drivers.

Note:
Do a Repair installation if:
A System Restore did not help fix your Windows 7.
There is no other easier option left that can fix your Windows 7.
You DO NOT want to do a Clean reinstall of Windows 7.
You DO want to preserve your user accounts, data, programs, and system drivers.

How to Do a Repair Install to Fix Windows 7 (< click here) just have a quick look at this very informative tutorial, it will explain everything. It's not a re-install, it saves everything you have on your OS partition/hard drive and only re-writes some of the OS.